High dynamic range (“HDR”) imaging technology is implemented in projection and display devices to render imagery with a relatively wide range of luminance levels, where the range usually covers five orders of magnitude between the lowest and the highest luminance levels, with the variance in backlight luminance typically being more than, for example, about 5%, regardless of whether the overall luminance of the display is not relatively high. In some approaches, HDR image rendering devices employ a backlight unit to generate a low-resolution image that illuminates a display that provides variable transmissive structures for the pixels. An example of an HDR image rendering device is a display device that uses a multitude of monochromatic light emitting diodes (“LEDs”) (e.g., white-colored LEDs) as backlight elements and a liquid crystal display (“LCD”) for presenting a high-resolution image, illuminated by the LEDs.
While functional, various approaches have drawbacks in their implementation. In some approaches, LCDs, such as active-matrix LCDs (“AMLCDs”), can include a transistor and/or a capacitor for each sub-pixel, which can hinder transmission efficiencies of passing light through traditional pixels, which usually have three filtered sub-pixel elements corresponding to a set of color primaries, such as red (“R”), green (“G”) and blue (“B”). Generally, the method of synthesizing a full-color image is known as spatial color synthesis. In some other approaches which utilize temporal color synthesis, fields of different colors are displayed in sequence (e.g., R, G and B) by transitioning through different backlight elements having different color outputs. Typically, this produces luminance variations from field to field that may be perceptible as flicker. A relatively more difficult problem arising from temporal color synthesis results from relative movement between the displayed image and the viewer's retina, whether the motion arises from the image or from the viewer's head and eye movements. In either case, the time-varying color components are no longer imaged on the same retinal region and the observer experiences what has come to be known as “color break-up,” or “the rainbow effect.” In at least one approach, a black frame may be inserted to reduce motion blur. However, the inserted black frame reduces the light throughput efficiency of the display and may also cause increased flicker due to the introduction of relatively large temporal luminance differences. Further, optical response times of LCD pixels to change from one luminance value to another may differ depending on the applied voltage range (or corresponding digital data values) across which the LCD pixel is transitioning. Typically, an LCD pixel can have a pixel value from 0 (e.g., no intensity) to 255 (e.g., full intensity), or, in some cases, pixel values may range from 0 to 1024. In some cases, for example, the optical response time of an LCD pixel may be quite different when changing between pixel values in the range of 0 to 255 than when changing between pixel values in the range of 128 to 200. Thus, a slow optical response time for some pixels can affect the rate at which other pixel values and/or intensities can be modified.
In view of the foregoing limitations of the existing approaches, it would be desirable to provide systems, computer-readable media, methods, integrated circuits, and apparatuses to facilitate high dynamic range imaging, among other things.